Came back to the motel as rain was threatening and I didn't have the car.

It was a good day for tennis. Mertov is here and we met up at the Dimitrov- Almagro match. That was an interesting one. Although Dimitrov won 7-6, 6-4, It was an up and down sort of match largely determined by whether Dimitrov's serve was on fire or not. Mertov thought that Almagro was making tactical mistakes. We waited to see Sloane Stevens beat Petra Martic 6-2,3-6,6-3. That was also an up-down match and it looked for a while as if qualifier Martic might win it.

From his coaching background, Mertov knows where the good ladies matches are and we went off to see the ladies doubles Hatuchova - Hingis vs Medina Garrigues - Penetta. The former pair won 4-6,6-4,10-5.I had not seen Hingis in action before. She still packs quite a punch.

Before the evening session I went to the advertised "conversation" between Brad Gilbert and Tommy Haas in the Corona Beach House. Mostly Brad, not much Tommy but Tommy attributes his new success to having a family. He wants to stay around long enough for his daughter to see him win something big. Tennis is on the TV in their house all the time and daughter , just a few years old, can already distinguish Roger, Rafa, and Dada. Brad says that the qualifications for being a good commentator are (1) to have opinions, (2) to make predictions. Brad certainly can do both! Asked who was his favorite pupil he came out strongly with Andre Agassi. Clearly there are still a lot of affectionate memories from that partnership. Brad thinks Ryan Harrison may be the big surprise of the tournament after his spectacular win last night but he has to get by David Ferrer tomorrow first!

The big disappointment for the day was the David Goffin - Mackenzie MacDonald match. The latter, about 18 year old, came through the qualifiers and there are great expectations from Brad Gilbert and others. But Goffin ran completely over him tonight with something like 6-1, 6-2. That was not good.

Then we went off to see two classy ladies Eugenia Bouchard and Monica Puig battle it out. It was some of the best tennis of the day. The former won. (don't have the score).

Mertov and I are going to meet tomorrow for the Kevin Anderson - Tommy Haas match at 11 am. That should be a corker.

Came back to the motel as rain was threatening and I didn't have the car.

It was a good day for tennis. Mertov is here and we met up at the Dimitrov- Almagro match. That was an interesting one. Although Dimitrov won 7-6, 6-4, It was an up and down sort of match largely determined by whether Dimitrov's serve was on fire or not. Mertov thought that Almagro was making tactical mistakes. We waited to see Sloane Stevens beat Petra Martic 6-2,3-6,6-3. That was also an up-down match and it looked for a while as if qualifier Martic might win it.

From his coaching background, Mertov knows where the good ladies matches are and we went off to see the ladies doubles Hatuchova - Hingis vs Medina Garrigues - Penetta. The former pair won 4-6,6-4,10-5.I had not seen Hingis in action before. She still packs quite a punch.

Before the evening session I went to the advertised "conversation" between Brad Gilbert and Tommy Haas in the Corona Beach House. Mostly Brad, not much Tommy but Tommy attributes his new success to having a family. He wants to stay around long enough for his daughter to see him win something big. Tennis is on the TV in their house all the time and daughter , just a few years old, can already distinguish Roger, Rafa, and Dada. Brad says that the qualifications for being a good commentator are (1) to have opinions, (2) to make predictions. Brad certainly can do both! Asked who was his favorite pupil he came out strongly with Andre Agassi. Clearly there are still a lot of affectionate memories from that partnership. Brad thinks Ryan Harrison may be the big surprise of the tournament after his spectacular win last night but he has to get by David Ferrer tomorrow first!

The big disappointment for the day was the David Goffin - Mackenzie MacDonald match. The latter, about 18 year old, came through the qualifiers and there are great expectations from Brad Gilbert and others. But Goffin ran completely over him tonight with something like 6-1, 6-2. That was not good.

Then we went off to see two classy ladies Eugenia Bouchard and Monica Puig battle it out. It was some of the best tennis of the day. The former won. (don't have the score).

Mertov and I are going to meet tomorrow for the Kevin Anderson - Tommy Haas match at 11 am. That should be a corker.

Great read as always E-man!

You have a blast tomorrow with Mertov mate. and Of course say hi to Tommy from me

Black played extremely well. Jerzy just started learning that he doesn't need to serve too much pace to win point in 2nd set. It is time for him to develop new serve and also take some pace off to his 1st serve.

Black played extremely well. Jerzy just started learning that he don't need to serve too much pace to win point in 2nd set. It is time for him to develop new serve and also take some pace off to his 1st serve.

Agreed. No need for risky 2nd serves.

I missed this James Fingers crossed he can keep this up and beat Tursunov next. Another tough opponent on these fast conditions.

BLAKE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He actually played really well tonight. Very much contained and within himself. Not bad for another "old man" -- was it! Way to go James... show these "young guns" what the 'old breeds' are made of!

Venus looked good too (once she got started). Great day for me!!!!! Now I hope Roger can come through tomorrow night!

Last week, I was thinking I'd like to watch Dimitrov (lose) than watch Kevin Anderson But the guy next to me convinced me to stick around because Dolgopolov (Anderson's opponent) was so entertaining to watch. I've seen Dolgopolov a few times, in fact, just the previous day when he was paired with Fognini against Haas/Melzer. I've only seen Dimitrov (lose) once, so I thought I'd give him a second look since, you know, Anderson is a

But I'm glad the guy next to me convinced me to stay. Not only did Dolgo thoroughly entertain -- the dude stood on the service line when returning Anderson's 1st serve and 2 steps inside to return his second serve!! I was pleased to learn that Anderson's game isn't as simplistic as I had thought. He's a fairly complete player when the ball is in play.

Also still looking for Harrison/Dolgopolov and Baker/Istomin highlights. Both Harrison and Baker have really tough matches tomorrow, what with Ferrer and Dimitrov, respectively. Ferrer's always weak and hard courts and Harrison's pretty high bouncing serve could give short Ferrer some trouble by being able to push him back with the serve and use his soft hands to get in a good drop shot. However, it's hard to make an effective drop shot on Ferrer. Baker's got it as good as he could against Dimitrov, since Dimitrov's coming off of a long, tight match and fitness is his HUGE weakness. Definitely going to have to tape the matches tomorrow and watch em. Stupid work has to get in the way of everything!

For those interested: A reporter brought up to Raonic what happened in his match with Del Potro (the net incident) and told him some of the criticism by the media (mentioned Davenport and two others). I thought Raonic handled it very well. He said that he made a big mistake, it was the first time it happened to him in a match of this magnitude and he said he did not think clearly at the moment, and he regretted it later when he began realizing what he had done later that day. He said again he learned from it and would never do it again, and he plans to apologize to Juan Martin when he sees him in this tournament and he still feels bad about it. He admitted to getting caught in the moment, and making a mistake for not saying anything.

He made a separate comment about how he thought it was very difficult to serve and volley successfully in today's game considering how well the top players are returning, but he added that he does not believe it will disappear and that there will always be a few guys who can master it enough to still do well on the tour with it. He said he has no plans to make it a substantial part of his game when asked.

For those interested: A reporter brought up to Raonic what happened in his match with Del Potro (the net incident) and told him some of the criticism by the media (mentioned Davenport and two others). I thought Raonic handled it very well. He said that he made a big mistake, it was the first time it happened to him in a match of this magnitude and he said he did not think clearly at the moment, and he regretted it later when he began realizing what he had done later that day. He said again he learned from it and would never do it again, and he plans to apologize to Juan Martin when he sees him in this tournament and he still feels bad about it. He admitted to getting caught in the moment, and making a mistake for not saying anything.

He made a separate comment about how he thought it was very difficult to serve and volley successfully in today's game considering how well the top players are returning, but he added that he does not believe it will disappear and that there will always be a few guys who can master it enough to still do well on the tour with it. He said he has no plans to make it a substantial part of his game when asked.

Best

Better late than never I guess, even when it was probably suggested by his PR team or he simply realized how he's been criticized ever since the incident happened.This is what I've been saying all along, he should have apologized right after the match if he couldn't do it right away.It's still not good enough for me because of that post presser, where he should have apologized and not making a terrible and lame excuses.But he at least admitted mistake/terrible sportsmanship. Good for him.